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RCR Crew Member Spotlight: Adam (Mesty) Mestemacher

The tire specialist on Richard Childress Racing’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series didn’t always have the childhood dream of working in NASCAR. He never attended a NASCAR race until 2010. Even after that, he was just a fan of the sport and had no real intentions of making a career in the racing industry.

Adam “Mesty” Mestemacher of Edwardsville, Ill., jumped at an opportunity to become part of the sport and never looked back. Now, he’s living a life that many dream of experiencing. .

Mesty graduated from Edwardsville high school in 2006 and was accepted at Purdue University. He began his college career as a Business Management major and sailed through classes with flying colors. But, as graduation approached, the young collegiate student realized he wanted something more.

“I knew I didn’t want to have a desk job right out of college,” Mesty said. “I wanted to be doing something I truly loved to do every day.”

Mesty discovered the University of Northwestern Ohio and enrolled to begin his journey to get his Associate’s Degree in Automotive and High Performance Technology, shortly after he received his Bachelor’s Degree from Purdue University. But UNOH isn’t your ordinary technical school.

UNOH offers a unique curriculum to young people interested in professional motorsports competition as a career with associate degrees and diploma programs in High Performance Motorsports. In 2006, UNOH took motorsports education to a new level with the largest facility in the country dedicated to learning the science of high performance vehicles - a seven acre, 70,000 square foot high performance motorsports complex.

While obtaining his degree at UNOH, Adam joined Race Club at the university to get his feet wet with real-life experiences in racing. It’s there that he was offered an internship with RCR and Ty Dillon in the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.

Since his first win with Dillon, Mesty interned with the Welcome, N.C.-based organization as the team traveled the ARCA Racing Series circuit. Following a championship season in 2011, Mesty was offered a full-time position as the tire specialist on Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet in the Camping World Truck Series.

"He's done a great job," Dillon said. "It's really cool to see the education they're getting is really working. He was able to join our team and work right into our group at RCR. It's cool to see everybody get an education on how to make race cars go fast and do a good job at it."

Mesty is now in his third full season with RCR. He has used his degree from UNOH to progress into a veteran tire specialist for the No. 3 team.

“I never thought I would be racing for a living and working with a great driver like Ty Dillon,” Mesty said. “But, it’s a dream come true.”